Well, we participated in our last presentation this week and adult learning turned out to be another interesting learning theory. I truly believe that these concepts may also be applied to younger students. Experience and responsibility have a huge impact on adults and I believe this creates many of the differences we may observe in learning styles between children and adults.

Our discussion about online portfolios and the information we post online was also very interesting. Any information we post on the internet is evidence that can sometimes be used to support us but may also be used against us. I always assume that anything I post on the web is public record. At times it stinks not to be able to participate in some of the discussions or activities that friends are involved in, but as teachers, we are held to a higher standard and we must act accordingly when in the public eye.

My paper is coming along. The biggest concern I have at this point is my work citing in APA format. I haven't written a referenced paper in 7 years and I believe last time is use MLA formatting. I have also spent some time building my portfolio page. Some of the characteristics of design and layout are also being discussed in my visual class, so I hope to put together something that is not only informative, but also easy to use and pleasant on the eyes.

I really enjoyed learning about cognitive load this week. I think the use of music really emphasizes how much we can store in our short turn memory and how to manipulate this process a bit. For years I have been talking to my students about studying skills and retaining information. One of my favorite little tasks is giving my students 5 seconds to memorize:

aeeeggiiiilnnnnsstt

Then I after assessing how well students performed, I repeat the process, but this time they try to memorize:

learning is interesting

As some of you may have noticed, these are the same set of numbers. However, because of our ability to chunk together letters in words, in the second round students only need to memorize 3 things, not 20.

I also hope everyone found our Connectivism presentation to be helpful. It was a bit difficult as a teacher to let everyone just go off in their own direction without much structure in our activity, but I think this was a more meaningful and personal process than most lessons. Sorry to those classmates who don't cook.

I have been asking my students to find and present math websites that may help us in algebra class. This process has been rewarding for them, not only because they have found something to help them learn, but they have also helped organize a set of resources for  all of my current and future algebra students. 

This week we discussed two new learning theories: Humanism and Constructivism. All of the information the groups provided and the lessons were very well organized and informative. I will never forget the bucket analogy! In math, we use constructivism constantly because of the logical connections from one topic to the next, so it was nice to also view this process through another content area.

Another great aspect of this class is being able to observe all of the creative ways groups use various web tools. Between Google, the various types of online survey, etc. I am putting together a lot of different tools I can utilize in my classroom!

Our group is presenting connectivism this week. I hope everyone finds our preview information helpful and enjoys our lesson.